


The Rule of Threes

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Cities, First Meetings, Foreshadowing, Gen, Humanstuck, Ladystuck 2014 Treat, Prophecy, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-03-08 01:09:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3190166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day Aradia Megido arrived in New York, three important things happened, though she only noted two at the time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rule of Threes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChameleonSerket](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChameleonSerket/gifts).



> Dear [ChameleonSerket](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ChameleonSerket), this is more of a setup than a proper story, for which I apologize, but hopefully it's enjoyable despite its inconclusive ending. :)

The day Aradia Megido arrived in New York, three important things happened, though she only noted two at the time.

The first important thing happened on her first trip up to her new apartment, when she met Jade Harley in the elevator. Aradia was trying to corral two floor lamps, an end table, and her heirloom china cabinet, which proved harder than she'd anticipated.

"Yikes!" a young woman said as the elevator doors slid open and one of the lamps made a break for freedom. She threw out her hands, and Aradia must have blinked because suddenly the falling metal pole was leaning against the edge of the door instead of crashing into the stranger's forehead and glasses.

"Wow, close one," said the stranger. She sidled carefully into the elevator, tugged the lamp upright and into the metal box, and punched the door-close button. "Hi, I'm Jade Harley. I take it you're moving in. Want some help carrying your stuff?"

"Sure, and I'm sorry about the lamp," Aradia said. "I should have been keeping an eye on the future -- I'm usually pretty good about preventing small disasters, but I didn't realize how many things can go wrong in an elevator."

She waited to see how Jade would react to the implications of that statement.

There was no flinch. Jade just smiled and said, "Oh, are you a seer? You'll be the second one in the building. I was actually going to visit the other one -- my friend Rose, Rose Lalonde, of the Arkham Lalondes -- she lives on the eighth floor, which is... apparently where you live too, since the button's already lit up. That's handy! Would you like me to introduce you?"

Aradia shrugged. "I'm not a proper seer. If it's more than a week in the future, it's as much a surprise to me as anyone else. I'm much better at looking back. I do a lot of finding charms, and I used to consult with the police back home -- crime reconstructions, cause of death, things like that. But I'd love to meet your friend. I'm Aradia Megido, by the way."

She noticed that Jade hadn't said anything about her own magic, or lack thereof. But it was rude to ask, so she held her tongue.

On the eighth floor, Jade took charge of the lamps while Aradia wheeled the end table and china cabinet out on the dolly the building superintendent had lent her. The elevator was one of two whose shafts formed the central axis of the building: they stood in a narrow cross-corridor, facing a rather sad and shabby laundry room and common area. To the left and right, a pair of longer corridors ran the length of the building, such as it was; behind the elevators, the stairwell snaked its way down to street level and one story up to the roof.

"What's your room number?" Jade asked.

Aradia glanced at her new key ring. "Eight-C."

"Oh, you have the back corner! Turn left." Jade pointed one of the lamps, then set out without checking to make sure Aradia was following. They passed two closed doors, each with a wooden name-plate shaped like a cute animal ("Nepeta makes those, she lives on the sixth floor, she'll probably drop by to meet you in a day or two," Jade said in response to Aradia's funny look), and just as Aradia stuck her key into the lock of her new apartment, the door of the front corner apartment slammed open hard enough to snap its upper hinge.

A white-haired woman stormed out and shouted, "You! Do you know what Feferi Peixes's attention will bring down on this house? Do you know what your choices will cost? Traitor! Thief! Their blood is on your hands!"

She hurled a glass tumbler down the short corridor toward Aradia's head.

Aradia ducked.

After a moment, she realized she hadn't heard anything crash or shatter, and opened her eyes to see the tumbler intact in Jade's hand. Jade was frowning at the intruder.

"Rose, really? I'm sure Aradia isn't _intentionally_ going to cause a disaster, and you know perfectly well that not everyone hiding from the seawitches has pure motives. Besides, aren't you always saying the future isn't set in stone? If you don't like what you see, help Aradia change it instead of driving her right into the worst possible choice."

Rose looked abashed; her fury drained as quickly as she herself had appeared. "I know, I know. I simply didn't have time to extricate myself from the grip of that potentiality -- it struck barely a minute ago, and the realization that the focal persona was directly outside my door was too much to bear." She stepped forward and held her empty hand out toward Aradia. "Rose Lalonde. You have my deepest apologies for my verbal attack and attempted physical assault. I assure you I don't hold any of your possible futures against you."

Aradia cautiously shook her hand. "Aradia Megido," she said. "Um, I'm sure this is a very silly question, but what exactly is wrong with Feferi Peixes? I always sort of admired her. Should I not?"

Jade and Rose exchanged a speaking look. Unfortunately, it spoke in a language Aradia couldn't translate.

"There's nothing wrong with Feferi Peixes on a personal level," Rose said after a moment. "The problem is the cultural framework she's been raised to maintain and represent. New York is a harbor city. Seawitches made her great, and seawitches hold the nets of power, both overt and covert. But what's good for the sea is not necessarily good for everyone, and in some cases, even the sea gets shortchanged in the name of stability and strength."

"I see," said Aradia, and wondered how she hadn't noticed she was moving to a city ruled by a magical mafia. Hopefully the seawitches' hypothetical lapses of ethics wouldn't prejudice the local police against hiring Aradia as a consultant. Her income estimates were all based on getting some work of that type.

None of that was Rose or Jade's fault, though. So she shrugged and said, "Well, I doubt there's any reason for Feferi Peixes to notice me, and I have no intention of trying to meet her, so that future should stay safely in might-have-been."

The second important thing happened at that point.

"No," said Rose, an odd, rasping note in her voice. When she opened her eyes, they had gone completely white. "You will meet Feferi Peixes. That is written. Blood and fire will come to the city. What rises from the ashes is up to you." Then she coughed and the eerie glow faded, leaving slightly bloodshot violet eyes. "Ugh, I hate prophecies. They always give me a frog in my throat."

Aradia blinked. Prophecies were generally very important. She had never expected to be the recipient or subject of a foretelling, let alone one so ominous. Nothing in her training covered this sort of situation.

She fell back on the manners her mother had drilled into her as a child. "Would you like some water?" she asked as she unlocked her door and pulled it open. The apartment gaped, empty and dim, beyond the doorframe.

"We already have a glass!" Jade added with a smile just a shade too innocent to be real.

"Yes, thank you," said Rose. "And then, if you like, I can augment Jade's assistance in hauling your possessions up from the street. Moving always goes faster with help."

"Faster with _friends_ ," Jade corrected. "We will be friends, won't we, Aradia?"

Aradia grinned. "I can't see my own future, but so far, signs point to yes."

The third thing, which happened while Rose and Jade helped Aradia carry the rest of her furniture, clothes, kitchenware, magical paraphernalia, and other boxes of the assorted detritus that builds up over a person's life, was much less dramatic. Aradia found an empty leather wallet lying on the sidewalk between her rented U-Haul trailer and the apartment building's front entrance, and decided to keep it since her own wallet was old and starting to fray at the corners.

But nobody realized that was important until it was much too late.


End file.
